By Special Correspondent.
What for the cause of Goa the Goans from Kuwait have done,
none other expatriate Goans have done.
Two big experiments Kuwait Goans have performed, one in support and
promotion of Konkani mainly thru the establishment of “NOVEM GOEM DAILY” movement
and the other thru business venture by erecting “HOTEL
GOAN HERITAGE” at Calangute. One experiment of Novem Goem has failed not
because of the fault of Kuwait Goans inspite of giving a huge donation for this project in lakhs of
rupees in late seventies and early eighties but it failed because of the
irresponsibility of the members of Novem Goem committee comprising learned
Goans such as Doctors, Lawyers, Journalist and Social activists. The management of Novem Goem with excess of
money at their disposal beyond their requirement, sent as donation by
Kuwait Goans not only failed this project but they have also failed the Kuwait
Goans and other donors as well.
The second experiment is the huge Hotel Goan Heritage project
which is in existence and functioning almost since last three decades. It looks shaky now in the hands of board of
directors comprising some impotent directors including corrupt ones. Vincente D’Souza then a
highly dynamic and a prominent Goan working at Kuwait Customs was the initiator
and the founder of Gulf Goans Hotels Company that built the Hotel Goan Heritage
at Calangute. Flav Pimenta was the first Chairman of this company
who left Kuwait by leaving his very lucrative job in the Oil company in Kuwait
to take care of this company and in fact he did so till his retirement. Because
of his sincerity, knowhow and dedication with hard work the Hotel came up. He was supported well from Kuwait by the
entire board based in Kuwait including the Managing director Mr. Vincente
D’Souza.
The early Board based in Kuwait was very sincere and
dedicated to the development of the company.
The board members worked tirelessly even by spending money from their
own pockets to develop this project. They worked sincerely because everyone had
a genuine interest and a high stake as directors in the company, none had
peanuts as his stake. Because they had high stake they worked responsibly, some
of them not even taking any personal benefit for them, on the contrary they made lot of sacrifices for the sake of this Hotel. Service to the company was their goal. Their
main motto was the unity of the board and collective responsibility. But now
the situation is totally different and the board is a devided lot. There are
factions now in the board, one of which is allegedly working under the
direction of Alex Wilson Coelho who is based in Canada but was involved when in
Kuwait in scandals and corruption. It
looks he doesn’t like upright persons in the board for this reason he is as
informed, from behind the curtain implanting his own tainted candidates against
good and productive sitting directors in the forthcoming board election
scheduled on 27th of this month.
Hotel Goan Heritage is the baby of the share holders around
one hundred who originally came forward to form this company to erect this
edifice of Hotel Goan Heritage. It is a symbol of expatriate Goan entrepreneurship.
These shareholders were all based in
Kuwait though many of them are now permanently settled in Goa and in the West. All
these shareholders have great responsibility to save this project from going
into the hands of rogues supported by Coelho who otherwise as a resident of
foreign country has got no right to be in the board because by being abroad he
cannot contribute in anything for the development of the project. So too the other two board members based in
Kuwait. For this reason since last 25 years there is not much development.
It is a pity that all the three board members stationed outside
Goa are not showing any concern for the company. If they had any concern they would
voluntarily abdicate their chairs in the board and allow somebody more
productive from Goa to replace them. Theirs is the attitude of the shameless
Goans who are crazy after power and honour just like our cheap
politicians. Ultimately what great one
can expect from the persons coming from the “hoi polloi” background and intellectually backward tribe? Their association in the board is detrimental
to the development of the Hotel Company because they are useless in the board.
As given to understand, two of the persons contesting the forthcoming
election allegedly backed by the Coelho panel are Wilson Rodrigues and Verlekar
who earlier were both thrown out by the AGM for not being upright in their
dealings as directors. Since their antecedents were bad and yet they are
contesting again that means they have their eyes on something else which they
can acquire for themselves only by entering into the board because the board is
become very lucrative for some to gain financial benefits and cheap prominence.
Hence, the Shareholders must make a
point not to elect such defective candidates and instead elect the good,
efficient and productive sitting directors one of them is Filipe Ferdinand the second highest stake holder and the other Chef Jerry Cal who is the
greatest asset to the Hotel as he is the only director having vast knowledge of
Hotel line.
There is a sizeable number of shareholders settled outside
Goa, some of them are in the West while
a few of them in Kuwait. When they send
their proxies they must make sure that their votes do not go to the corrupt and
to the rogues who are all out to devour for themselves the financial benefits
meant for the shareholders. One of the
perfect examples of the loot was the purchase of Dhargal property with the
initiative of Coelho, Verlekar and Rodrigues. This property falls into the Orchard land category which means useless for development.
